A Fat Cat And Second Chances

Devi didn’t believe in the saying that -‘Nobody is Perfect’. She drew perfectly straight lines without a scale. Even her diagonal lines were perfectly diagonal. When she removed her sandals and wore her slippers she knew where they would be kept perfectly well.

It was windy outside and Devi’s office window swung and shut and opened a couple of times. Devi got up from her seat and saw outside, a dust storm was in the making. She wiggled her nose and shut the window tight. She didn’t like dust or scattered papers in her office. Actually she didn’t tolerate it. Devi knew it was going to be a nightmare for her to go till the car in such a weather. It might start raining and then her stilettoes, the hem of her dress, offo!, everything will be dirty.

Sameer and Devi were married now for 15 years. Devi worked as a designer for a garment line in a studio boutique, as it was called. It was a flourishing business in Pune’s posh suburbs and they paid her well. Sameer was a CEO of a multinational company. Both were in their late 30’s and were doing very well. Consciously they had decided to have no babies, as both of them were very busy establishing themselves in their own fields and didn’t feel the need to have babies. They were happy with themselves. They believed in the idea of work hard, party hard and that is what they used to do. It was Devi’s wish to have her own bungalow. They found a suitable small Bungalow at Lonavla which Devi had redecorated with great passion and hard work. Then it had become their routine to escape to Lonavla on weekends, sometimes just the two of them, sometimes with friends and relatives.

Devi had been lately diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which she had not told to Sameer. As she did not believe it, she always thought how could one sleep on crumpled bed-sheet? Throw wet towels on the bed; squeeze the paste from the middle. If I cannot stand it that does not mean it is OCD. But it was not just this that Devi could not stand. She required everything perfect. She would not visit people with small houses. She did not talk with people who did not dress well. She would not dine in average looking restaurants then eating street food was out of question. She would nag Sameer non-stop for his careless behavior. She would not even pick up babies, in the fear, they might spoil her dress. This nature of Devi had also led to their decision of not having babies. Now Sameer loved babies and wanted one. He had once or twice tried to convince Devi but she had reacted so vehemently that he had closed the subject of babies from his mind. Lately, they fought a lot over petty issues. Devi would lose her temper and then Sameer would get irritated and leave the house. This was becoming a pattern.

Today, while in the office thinking about this, she realized that she loved Sameer and she needs to do something about the situation. In the morning, while leaving for office, he had not even given her a peck on the cheek, the way he did every day.  All of a sudden she remembered that Sameer’s Birthday was coming on this Sunday and she came up with a plan. She decided to give Sameer a surprise birthday party at Lonavla. She decided to talk to Sameer, right away. She thought she would make a plan to relax at Lonavla this weekend. The climate was also good. As it is the Lonavla summers were good. Their swimming pool was also ready, they would throw a barbeque party. So with new found enthusiasm, she left for Sameer’s office.

‘When man does a stupidest thing, it is for the noblest motive’, said Oscar Wilde. Why Sameer had hired a new pert nosed, fair skinned, cushion breasted bimbo in his office only Sameer knew. At first look itself, she had not liked her and had said so to Sameer. But Sameer had ignored her comments. She reached his floor to see all the lights were dim and there was only the peon sitting outside their office. She asked him if Sahib is there and he nodded affirmative. She went inside and entered Sameer’s office, calling him softly. She did not see him first at the table. So, Devi looked around and found Sameer on his knees and Reena all flushed spread under him. Seeing the situation, Devi went mad with rage and ran towards them like a mad woman, screaming, shouting obscenities. Without giving them time to recover, she hit Sameer with her hand bag. Cussing all the time she went over to Reena and gave her a shot or two. Reena too started shouting, but somehow managed to leave the room. She chased Sameer in his office crying, shouting and screaming. Sameer was desperately asking her for forgiveness, but she was not in the state to listen. Ultimately Sameer’s clothes helped Sameer to calm Devi. She fell over the pile of clothes which the couple had shed. They were still lying on the office floor, Devi, while running behind Sameer tripped over them and hit her chin on a glass table. Sameer stopped abruptly and went near her to help her out, but Devi pushed away his helping hands and stood up. Her chin was bleeding and she was mumbling something which even Sameer could not hear properly. She went to the mini bar which Sameer always kept stocked. She took out a bottle of whisky which was ¾ empty, she took a swig from it and helped herself to another bottle of rum and poured the rum 1/3 in her whiskey bottle. Similarly, whatever came to her hand she kept on filling one after the other in her whiskey bottle. In the meanwhile, Sameer was all dressed and was trying to stop her from filling various liquors together to make such a deadly cocktail, but she was just not ready to listen to him. After she was finished swigging and filling her bottle completely with a deadly concoction, she left Sameer’s office, calling behind him, “Hope not to see you ever again. Good bye” and the door slammed.

Sameer slumped down on the sofa and kept sitting there for longest time; when did he fell asleep on the sofa, in the same position, even he didn’t know.

She opened her bleary eyes when she saw the cat, all seven pounds of furry ball, sitting on her belly. Squinting into the sunlight streaming in from the open window, she discovered that she was now the weary possessor of a pounding headache, a furry cat who had assumed Devi’s belly like her throne. At some point, she had managed to lose both a tooth and a spouse and had found a fat cat.

Devi looked around her but couldn’t place the surrounding in her brain. So she thought of getting up, but the effort to sit up was so huge, her head reeled so badly that she fell back on her pillow. Then, she realized that the cat is still sitting comfortably on her belly, maybe mistaking her wiggly jelly like belly for a warm water bed, she tried to look at the cat, which was really fat and completely white with blue eyes. As if, straight out of Disney world. The cat was looking intently at her. ”What’? Devi asked the cat, “Do I know you?” The cat meowed lazily and stepped down from Devi’s belly like a queen and walked away moving her generous bum languidly. Devi was amazed; she kept looking at the cat till she moved away. Then she decided to give another try at getting up; very slowly she sat up and then realized that she was in her lingerie, she saw a door in front of her and staggered to open it, as she had thought it was a bathroom. It was a very beautiful bathroom with a small flower vase kept in one window. Another window was a French window with a picturesque balcony with lots of green in it. Devi racked her brain to think where she was, this all looked so familiar. She splashed lots of water on her face and voila!, she was enlightened by two things, she was in her own home at Lonavla. It all came back to her in a minute. Her fight with Sameer and then she had left Sameer’s office, but how she had reached here that was still missing from her memory. She was trying hard, when the bell rang, Devi had to leave her remembering exercise and she went to open the door. Her maid mangal had arrived. She mumbled something that why did Memsaab take so long and then asked about the beautiful cat who was sitting regally in the upstairs balcony. But Devi told her, that she didn’t know from where the cat had come?

Mangal bai brought Devi a steaming cup of coffee, which she took to her favourite place, a chair near the picture window and started sipping it quietly, thinking all the time about her course of action.

Sameer was in deep sleep in the office sofa, when he heard the phone ringing, he thought that the building is on fire and woke up with such a start that when he stood up, his neck snapped with such pain that after that he sat down quietly and thought of his past and future thoroughly. At that time, he realized that he was still in office and not at home. He also remembered that Devi had left his office in a very foul mood. He grabbed his mobile without checking it and started towards his home; the sweepers, peons and other gentry had just started coming back to the office area and were looking at Sameer with wonderment.

Sameer reached home and ringed the bell, but nobody opened the door for him. Ultimately he searched for his pockets for the house keys and found them. He entered the house and called Devi, but got no response. He saw the bed, which looked as if not been slept during the night. Everything looked untouched, at its own place as Devi liked it. Then he entered the kitchen, the food was laid out, the dining table looked set. Seeing the food, Sameer realized how famished he was, he sat then and there at the table and hogged the food. Then he again remembered that he needs to check where Devi was, so he called Devi but there was no response, actually the call didn’t go through. Sameer sat down disgustedly. Actually Sameer loved Devi and was ready to do anything for her. He bore her outbursts well. He had complied with her obsession of cleanliness and hygiene, but he also knew that does not mean that she has to bear his adultery, which he had committed without thinking. He panicked with the thought that she might do something irrational and needs to find her.

He kept pacing for a while when all of a sudden he got an idea. He knew where his wife would be. In yesterday evening’s circumstances, if she was not here, then she would go to her beloved home, Lonavla. He knew she was too proud to tell her parents or friends about the debacle right away. He grabbed his car keys and started towards Lonavla at full speed.

Devi felt numb and kept sitting near the window for a long time. The cat came near her and jumped on her lap. Devi was little surprised but the cat was beautiful. She started moving her hand on the cats back and she became enormously drowsy and fell asleep. Devi dreamt so many things. She saw her driving in rain and storm, and then she saw the cat. The cat sometimes looked like Reena and sometimes like Devi. The cat was trying to tell her something but she wouldn’t understand.

She came out of her dream with a start. Mangal was waking her up; the cat was not in her lap. Mangal was saying some police had come to meet her. Devi went to the door, where four police men were standing. As soon as they saw her, they asked her name and started saying that they had come to take back Taisaheb. Devi was confused and didn’t know what they were talking about. She said so to them, that she had not kidnapped any Taisaheb. But the police refused to listen to her. They told her that she had stolen the Taisaheb from her home yesterday night. The police took Ira to her car, which looked like a dumping truck. The police showed her the marks of red paint on Devi’s car. According to them, the marks from red paint were from Ranade Wada.

During this scuffle which was now going on from last 40 minutes, Sameer reached their. Seeing the police van and the police, he thought Devi is in deep trouble. He came shouting for Devi. “Devi, Devi I am there for you dearest, don’t worry.” Devi got irritated seeing Sameer and told the police that they should catch Sameer, as he is a bad husband. But the police told her that they would see to her husband later, right now they needed the cat which Devi has stolen. At that very moment, Taisaheb, the fat cat came strolling and sat on a beautiful rug which Devi had put in the drawing room. Seeing the cat everybody stopped talking at once. Then the police officer said, "Deviji, see we are talking about this very cat.” Devi tried to tell him that she didn’t know how this cat came here. But Sameer nudged her and asked her to look at the cat. The cat was twisting and turning, she was in pain. She stood up for a while but then when she couldn’t stand it she sat down. Devi reflexively went near the cat to soothe her. Initially Devi was little skeptical, that should she help the cat or not. But then, she braved herself to touch her and started soothing her and to her surprise the cat let her be. The police had moved away a little bit and was waiting patiently. Sameer was standing at his place utterly motionless. Devi sat down on the floor cross legged. Within a few minutes the cat gave birth to 4 beautiful, tiny kittens. One kitten was smaller than the others. When the cat licked them all, she saw the smaller one was of different color, maybe black. But the cat was paying more attention to the black one. Devi had tears in her eyes. Her white Persian rug was ruined but she didn’t even look at it. It didn’t matter to her anymore. Suddenly she was very relaxed, nothing mattered to her now.

Devi called the police and asked them how they knew her address. The police told her that she had gone to Ranade Wada the other night and brought the cat here. She had given her address to Mrs. Ranade. Devi now remembered, not very clearly but little bit. It was raining heavily and it had been stormy as well. Devi had banged her car already once. So she had entered a house to be safe. There the people had assumed her to be the veterinary doctor whom they were expecting. The lady was saying that her cat is not well and she should see her. Devi couldn’t clarify that she is not the doctor and went to see the cat. Now she understood, she must have carried the cat here at home.

Devi called Mrs. Ranade and told her that the cat would be coming back to her with beautiful kittens. She gave the police, the cat and the kittens in a large basket.

Devi sat down vacantly, when Sameer came to her and said sorry number of times for his behaviour. He pronounced his undying love for Devi and his stupidity of committing adultery. Devi smiled at his vows and the sad speech which he was giving. All of a sudden Sameer saw something; he looked at Devi’s face and very seriously and hesitantly told Devi that she had lost one tooth. Devi touched the gap with her tongue and told Sameer that she knew that her tooth is broken since morning. Yesterday, sometime during the night she must have lost it, but she didn’t care. Sameer thought Devi would cry now, as she liked everything perfect and hated anything shabby or imperfect. 

But what he was seeing was totally different, Devi was cool, unfazed. She had healed inside out. She quietly told Sameer that she has forgiven him and told her to preserve the rug on which the cat had birthed the kittens. She told Sameer that the world is imperfect and she should understand it and should be compassionate towards every one and everybody. She smiled showing her imperfect grin and said,” You know Sameer, the fat cat taught me.

Sameer hugged Devi and once again said sorry, Devi also said sorry that she had said awful things to him.

Next day was Sunday. Sameer and Devi had guest pouring out of there house. Some guests were on terrace, some by the pool, and some in the drawing room. But Devi had one special guest locked away neatly in her bedroom; Devi came quickly to check on it. The little black kitten was sleeping cozily on Devi’s bed. Devi gave a satisfied imperfect smile.